[JURIST] A UN human rights expert on Wednesday called on [press release] the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) [JURIST news archive] to do more to protect human rights workers in the country, and to prosecute those who harm them. The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders Margaret Sekaggya [official profile] issued a list of suggested improvements for the DRC government and the UN Organization Mission in DR Congo (MONUC) [official website], including taking concrete steps to legitimize the work of human rights defenders, translating the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders [text, PDF] into local languages, and fully investigating and prosecuting offenses against human rights workers. Sekaggya said that:

Human rights defenders ... face illegitimate restrictions of their right to core freedoms, i.e. freedoms of opinion and expression, peaceful assembly and association. Defenders, in particular journalists, who report on human rights abuses committed by State and non-State actors are killed, threatened, tortured or arbitrarily arrested and their offices are raided. The media are sometimes suspended, and journalists often censor themselves in fear of reprisals.

Sekaggya also urged the Congolese National Assembly to pass a draft law establishing a human rights commission, which was has already been approved by the Senate.

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